To Fight Our Destiny
by Insidiae
Summary: Before the chuunin exam finals, Naruto and Hinata have an interesting conversation that leads to some other interesting thing. A 'What If' story. Oneshot, NaruHina, fluff, etc.


This is yet another request, this time for PresentDayRomeo. I love them, can't get enough of them, even though this one is seriously like two months overdue! I'm sorry, I was trying to hard not spoil anything.

On that note, this story takes place during Naruto and Hinata's conversation before the chuunin exam finals. Well, actually, it IS that coversation, except... modified for NaruHina-ness. You'll notice some of the lines are exact from the episode (in fact, a lot are). You have thus been forewarned. As of now, you have also been forewarned that this is probably the closest thing I'll ever get to fluff.

So, without further ado, I present to you, To Fight Our Destiny

...God, even the title sounds WAFFy.

Disclaimer: Everything belongs to Kishimoto.

* * *

_Two!_

The veins that rimmed Hinata's eyes grew in size as she fully activated the Byakugan

_Four!_

Her arms began to pick up speed as the chakra poured out from her fingers.

_Eight!_

Later on, she would feel a bit sorry for the tree she was practicing on (Hinata was just that kind of person), but at the moment, all she concentrate on was imagining the plant was an enemy as bark flew.

_Sixteen!_

Her arms were blurs at this point.

_Thirty-Two!_

She knew that she shouldn't be doing this so soon after her fight with Neji, but she had something to prove to herself.

_Sixty-Four!_

Her movements came to a halt and she placed her hands on her knees to steady her weak body. Unable to help it, Hinata coughed into her hand, grimacing when she saw it was blood. She slumped against the now shredded tree.

Damnit.

She was annoyed. Annoyed with Neji for rubbing it in her face that she was a failure to their clan, annoyed at herself for being unable to change it. She knew, as the heir to the Hyuuga, that the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms techniques should not be this hard for her, but Gentle Fist chakra was so hard to control, and…

And she should stop making excuses for herself. Eyes hardening in resolution, she stood from the ground and dusted off her pants. Maybe Neji was right, but that was no reason for her not to try!

She faced the tree again and readied herself. Activating the Byakugan, she went right back in.

_Two!_

Hinata generally wasn't proud, but she recognized the need to be for her clan.

_Four!_

So, she would practice until she went blue in the face, and then after that, she would train some more.

_Eight!_

It was good that most people were at the exams today. She could hear the noise all the way from the distant training ground where she practiced, and it reassured her that nobody was around to see her in this time of weakness.

_Six-_

Wait.

She forced her arms to a stop as the Byakugan picked up a chakra signal from a nearby tree. She cursed herself internally for not being able to pick up the source sooner, even with her pale eyes fully activated, but put on as a hard an exterior as she could manage.

"Who's there? Come out, I know you're hiding," she stated stoically. Her voice sounded awkward; it was hard to force her naturally feminine and light voice into something that was attempting (and failing at) intimidating and cold.

There was a small chuckle as a blond emerged from the forest looking somewhat abashed, his left arm scratching the back of his head guiltily. "Sorry Hinata, I didn't mean to watch."

Any pretense of being tough was dropped immediately as a rosy blush made its way across her cheeks and her breath caught in her throat. "N-Naruto-kun! Why did you come here? Isn't t-today the main matches?"

"I, uh…" He trailed off, uncertainly. "…You know. I just came to see the training grounds." Hinata looked at him curiously, her unspoken question hanging clearly in the air. Naruto rubbed his neck a bit more before continuing. "Since this is where I became a genin."

There was a bit of a drawn out silence, as Naruto seemed to lose himself in his happy memories. Elated to learn more about her crush, and reassured by the smile on his face, she let a tentative "Really?" slip from between her lips. When he nodded in the affirmative, she took another brave step and asked, "B-But why?"

Naruto had momentarily flashbacks of a demonic little bell, an empty stomach, and a thousand years of pain, causing him to face fault. Trying to hide his blanch as well as possible, he turned his back to her and crossed his arms. "N-No reason!" he stammered, praying her too-good eyesight didn't catch his nervous aura. "Who cares about the reason…"

"Y-Yeah," she replied immediately, eyes casting to the ground. Had she said something wrong again? It wouldn't have surprised her if she had. Things usually were her fault. "Sorry."

There was another elongated silence, this one much more awkward than the first. Both seemed to struggle with what they wanted to say. Eventually, Naruto was the one to break it. "Hey, Hinata," he began, turning around again to face her. "Neji is your relative, right?"

Hinata blinked wide eyes at him, confused. "Y-Yes."

"Is he strong?" came the sudden inquiry, catching Hinata off guard. There was a deep-rooted determination in his eyes, and it hurt Hinata to see it.

The pale girl was never good at masking her emotions, and she could feel the blond lose a little bit of confidence with eyes bit her frown increased. In the end, she was unable to face him, cowardly as always, and closed her eyes to whisper out the word, "Yes."

It wasn't her answer that crushed Naruto as much as the way she said it. There was no stutter like normal; instead, it was spoken with such conviction, such confidence, that it showed Hinata had no doubt in the matter. "I see," he said, brows furrowing.

Hinata realized her mistake immediately. "B-but…" she started again, when she saw his reaction. "You might be able to defeat him, Naruto-kun."

Naruto laughed loudly, smoothing back into his persona with ease. "Of course! I AM strong!" He continued to laugh for while longer before the chuckles died done and faded away in the wind. Hinata gave him a pitying look. There was no mirth in that laugh.

The silence became overbearing.

She couldn't take it any more; eventually the kunoichi murmured something to stop the torturous quiet, though she lacked the confidence to say it loudly enough for Naruto to hear it. Curious as to what she said, the blue-eyed boy cocked his head at her, silently asking her to repeat herself.

"O-Only human," she whispered again, this time a little louder. Again, Naruto gave her an inquisitive look, showing clearly that he didn't understand what she said. There was pause as the pale-eyed girl tried to gather her words, thumbs twiddling nervously. "H-He…" she began. "Neji-oni-san…. i-is a wonderful fighter, and a very strong person, but he's still only human."

"Hinata…"

"And as a h-human, Neji-oni-san has s-strengths and weaknesses." For the first time, Hinata looked at Naruto straight in the eye. It made her unbearably nervous, but this was something she felt she needed to do for him, and so she refused to waver. "Neji-oni-san is n-not perfect."

There was a curious expression on Naruto's face, one of which Hinata had never seen on him before. It was deeply rooted to emotions of some sort, and held a greater show of interest than anything else she'd ever seen with him, except for Sakura and Sasuke. He tilted his head, seeming to try and sort something out in his mind, before asking, "Hinata, what is Neji like?" with genuine intrigue.

This was it. This was what Hinata was bracing herself for since the beginning of the conversation, and yet, she still found her words caught in her throat. Taking deep breaths to calm herself, she attempted as best she could to explain her cousin to her crush.

"Neji-oni-san…. believes in d-destiny." She paused, recollecting the memories of the sparse times she had been with him. "I think… I think he believes i-it is his destiny to win." She took on airy look as her voice gained some thoughtful inflection. "Maybe that's why he felt he needed t-to beat me so badly."

"That's stupid," Naruto interrupted, a befuddled expression upon his face. "I mean, that's kind of sucky to think, you know? I guess, it's like, just giving up before ever beginning. I don't see the point of even trying if you think your life is already going to be a certain way, and there's nothing you can do about it. That way of thinking…" He stopped suddenly. "Hinata, do you believe that? Do you believe in destiny?"

"I-I…" She cut off. Her hands clutched at her arms, as if trying to warm herself, despite the warm weather and her rather heavy coat. Still, Naruto noticed, upon her face was a small, odd smile. "I d-do. But… but, N-Naruto-kun, I also b-believe in being a-able to fight d-destiny."

_Just look at me. Look at you. Look at us._

"Neji-oni-san's i-idea of destiny," she continued. "Is a very, very s-sad one, I think. He… Neji-oni-san s-sees it as something inescapable. I think Neji-oni-san f-feels trapped," she concluded, eyes cast downwards. "Trapped, because he is only human, a-and he needs to be so much m-more."

"And… that's his weakness…?" Naruto's brow furrowed. He was trying to make sense of this, he really was, but he knew there was just one piece of the puzzle missing.

Hinata nodded in affirmation. "Neji-oni-san is restricted by his o-own thoughts, and I think…" Her eyes widened as she trailed of because, _Oh, God!_ "I think I pity him, Naruto-kun." Her white eyes searched his face for answers she knew he didn't have, because after all, he was the one asking questions here. What she found instead was the absolute, unwavering determination that made up Naruto's being. "N-Neji-oni-san c-can't r-realize h-his f-full p-potential, b-because h-he f-feels a-as th-though this i-is s-something h-he n-needs t-to d-do, r-rather th-than s-something h-he w-wants t-to d-do." She was getting excited, and knew that she was stammering over almost every word, but she couldn't help. She had had an epiphany. "I th-think you c-can win, N-Naruto-kun." She twiddled with her thumbs some more, as a slow, genuine happy smile stretched across her face. "No," she said, shaking her head. "I'm sure you can beat him, Naruto-kun…"

The blond gazed at her curiously, and Hinata found herself blushing and looking away again, now that she didn't have her seriousness preventing her. The kunoichi tapped her fingers together as she grasped at her recent memories.

"Um, when you cheered me on, I felt like I had become stronger than before…" She was looking at him again. This was good. Now all she had to do was keep it up. "After the preliminaries, I felt like I was able to like myself a little more."

_Maybe someday, I'll be able to like myself as much as I like you._

"If a stranger looked at me, it may seem like I haven't changed…" A fond smile, a light blush. "But I think I was able to change."

_Do you see Naruto-kun? I'm fighting my destiny, and so can you!_

"And I think it was thanks to you, Naruto-kun."

_Because I was doing something that I wanted to, not that I needed to. Because the difference between need and want is doing it for yourself, or doing it for others._

_And Neji-oni-san doesn't have any "others."_

Hinata folded her hands over her lap and glanced over to the side to avoid Naruto's gaze. It just occurred to her how much she had just spoken. Naruto must have found her terribly boring. "Hey, Hinata."

Speak of the devil. Or rather, the devil speaks, perhaps.

"Did you really think that?"

The girl takes a sharp, shallow breath, because Naruto's voice had such a passion in it and there was a fire in his eyes. His fists were clenched at his sides, and he exuded a fighter's aura. She was nothing less than startled. "What?"

And then, all his strength collapsed in on itself.

"I may look strong from your point of view, but I always screw up…" She gave him a sympathetic look that dreaming eyes didn't see. Blue irises were glazed in memory and he was biting his lip, and not a single bit of the irony that _he_ was the one showing off these nervous habits in _her_ presence was lost on Hinata. "And I just act strong because I'm mad."

"That's not true!" The Hyuuga shouted, taking an impulsive step towards him before taking a wary step back. Naruto looked up at her with wide eyes, and for the first time, Hinata felt as though he may actually have been _seeing_ her. "Even if you did make a mistake you were always…" She paused, trying to think of how best to word what she wanted to say, though the reassuring smile she wore was never dropped. "…From my point of view, a proud man who makes lots of mistakes."

She looked up at him again, in search of a sign that she should continue, but instead saw an uncharacteristic expression of shock, blue eyes wide and mouth hanging open in a sentence frozen before it even started. Not one to be deterred to easily, she continued, "When I looked at you, there was an impact on my heart." The Byakugan user was back to twiddling her fingers. "You're not perfect…. You make mistakes, and you get stronger from them."

_But no one's perfect, Naruto-kun! No one!_

Naruto remained stock-still. Hinata would've thought him dead, if it weren't for the occasional surprised blink. She figured she must have looked like a sunburned tomato at this point from all the blushing, but she felt a strange sense of elation and telling her crush all these things she felt, and so she finished happily. "I believe that is true strength. Naruto-kun, you are a strong person, I think."

Good. She felt much better now that she had said all that.

…Wait. Oh God, she had said _all that._

Impressively, she was able to squelch the squeak that threatened to tumble from her lips as soon as realized what she had said, but she couldn't stop the reflex she had to hide behind the training pole she had been leaning against.

There was a small moment of silence, and then Naruto grinned. And then he _chuckled_. "Thank you, Hinata." He looked up at the sky, and Hinata was relieved to see his normal, happy expression back on his face. "I've always been last place in everything," he said with a grin. He pumped his muscles and made a show of his arms, winking. "I was nervous over nothing. I was a bit depressed, but I feel better now!"

The pale girl mimicked him upon hearing this, grinning as she clasped her hands at her chest. "Naruto-kun…"

"I'll be going off to the matches now!" he said waving to her, and all she could do was smile back. She came out from behind the pole, leaning on it again as he turned back to face her, now at the edge of the grounds. "Hinata…"

She snapped to attention. "Yes?"

"I always thought of you as…" Her heart jumped; maybe he was going to finally say it?

"What? What?"

"…A dark, timid, and weird person."

Her shoulders slumped and she let out an exasperated sigh. "Naruto-kun…"

"But you know something…?" He was walking back to her now, and Hinata found it odd that her heart decided then to start racing after she had had an entire conversation with him. "I like people like you."

Make that a sunburned tomato drenched in cherry sauce.

…_like you…._

"In fact, I think I like people like you a lot." There was a pause as he looked critically at her shocked expression, rather like the one he wore just a few minutes before. "Say, Hinata," he started, and the girl ninja couldn't help but notice that it was most _definitely_ a smirk that stretched across his lips. "Sakura-chan is mean. She wouldn't give me a good luck kiss today. Can I get one from you?"

Hinata was pretty sure her heart stopped.

Naruto apparently took her stunned silence as permission, and before she could say or do anything was leaning down and pecking her cheek. He stayed there for a moment, lips softly touching a cheek that was warmed by the blood that was positively gushing underneath, coloring the fair skin nicely. While her mind worked furiously on making her heart beat normally again, the blond boy parted from her and began trotting away. "I'll see you later, Hinata-chan! Don't be too late for the match, okay? I promise I'll beat your snobby cousin right into the ground!" He called over his shoulder.

A soft breeze floated through the air as he disappeared from Hinata's vision. She would look back later and be mildly impressed that it didn't knock her over completely.

"Sorry I was late, Hinata! Shino's match is on later, so…" Kiba trailed off as he approached his female teammate. "Hey, Hinata?" Akamaru let out a bark. She didn't respond.

The Inuzuka boy spent the next minute or so looking between his teammate and his dog, who seemed to understand about as much of what was going on as he did, before following her gaze in the direction of Naruto's departure. He didn't see anything. "What the…?" Hinata didn't look at him.

She just kept looking forward.

* * *

"_We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours."_

-Dag Hammarskjold

* * *

Alright, so not my best work, but not half-bad I suppose. Could be better, though. Ugh.

Right! And if anyone else wants to request a story, I'd be more than happy to take it! I write het, slash, femmeslash, and genfic, so don't worry who it is. I also write pairings and threesomes, so seriously, bring on the requests! Just PM me and I'll get right on it (Or you could leave it in a review hinthintnudgenudge).

Please review!

-Insidiae-


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